


Star Wars (2): Pulling Away From The Light

by Madzie2000



Series: Star Ships: Best Non-canon Couples of TV and Film [2]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: F/M, Threats of Rape/Non-Con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-26
Updated: 2016-07-26
Packaged: 2018-07-26 21:52:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7591732
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madzie2000/pseuds/Madzie2000
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kylo Ren's interrogation of Jakku scavenger Rey takes an odd turn. </p><p>Also, his sudden outbursts of anger as Starkiller Base goes down in flames receive a personal perspective.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Star Wars (2): Pulling Away From The Light

**Author's Note:**

> Dialogue has been adapted in part from the movie and novelisation by Australian writer Alan Dean Foster – Non-Canon moments are all me XD

Rey woke on a metal slab, her body jolting to consciousness so violently that her feet made a loud bang against the thick durasteel. As it echoed around the room she noticed the masked **thing** crouching in line with her feet, almost sitting the ground. The complicated fixings around the restraints of the slab she found herself on seemed to have a purpose… a purpose she didn’t care to find out but she could suppose quite easily. Rey was startled by Kylo Ren’s silent and ominous presence in the room; she stole small glances from the mask to her new surroundings. The last thing she remembered was being held still by invisible hands on Takodana before suddenly falling into an unconscious heap. She almost met with the earth but Kylo Ren’s arms shot out and lifted her, bewildering the Stormtroopers who had witnessed the Sith Apprentices raw strength. The forest she had been standing in, the light filtering in behind green leaves and the colours of nature were gone. In haste to understand why she was being held in such a grey, miserable place with this creature staring her down, Rey asked him a simple question.

“Where am I?”

“Does the physical location really matter so much?” 

The l;ack of hostility in the way Ren addressed her wasn't sympathetic of her situation: whatever was making him so unnaturally welcoming made her gut tighten.

“You’re my guest,” he said with a surprising amount of - joy was it? - in his tone.

As if showing her both his power and generosity, Kylo Ren waved a hand in her direction and the restraints snapped open, hitting the black slab with a metallic clang. Though she didn’t want to appear desperate to calm her raw wrists, Rey kept her eyes on the dark mask and rubbed them gently. After a moment of silence she realised they were alone.

“Where are the others? The ones who were fighting with me?” she asked with desperation.

Ren could have laughed, but the sound caused even himself to wince, so he stopped himself. He chose an inaudible sniff of derision at how she clung to the lives of others, most especially FN-2187.

“You mean the traitors, murderers and thieves you call friends? Consider this carefully: I could easily tell you they were all killed, righteously slain in battle... but I would prefer to be honest with you from the beginning. You will be relieved to hear that as far as their current status is concerned, I have no information.”

Though Rey was concealing the anger in her mind, she knew her mental defenses were weak. That was how he had seen the map – or at least – knew that she had seen it. She had transparisteel guarding her emotions and her memories she kept behind a single, tattered, wooden door.

“You still want to kill me,” he murmured with amusement.

In that moment Rey didn’t care that he could slash her to pieces or choke the air from her lungs: she just needed to vent the anger.

“That’s what happens when you’re being hunted by a creature in a mask,” she said through gritted teeth.

In that eerie silence, Rey ran through his possible reactions: slice her in half, choke her with his raw strength, invade her mind and turn it to mush... and then he removed the mask. Beneath the black and silver lay a face, a **human** face. His skin was dotted here and there with tiny moles and eyes that seemed as dark as the black emptiness surrounding their ships. A Jedi would have likened it to the Dark and Light sides of the Force, the black in his hair a devastating contrast to the pallor of his skin. Had it not been for the intense feeling of disdain she got from his glare, he might have passed as any other human that made their way to Niima Outpost.

“It is true?” he finally asked “You’re just a scavenger?”

As if he sensed her embarrassment at being spoken of so openly, he changed the subject. Whether for his own purposes or simply because he’d found the humanity to take pity on her, Rey wasn't sure.

“Tell me about the droid,” he said casually.

Rey swallowed and tried to move the lump from her throat.

“He’s a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator –”

“I am familiar with the droid’s specifications. I don’t want the details of it, I want what it hold in its data banks. It’s carrying a section of a navigational chart. We have the rest recovered from the archives of the Empire. We need the last piece and somehow **you** convinced the droid to show it to you. **You**. A scavenger. Why is that?”

She looked away from his gaze behind dark, pride-filled eyes, the stare he gave her growing more and more uncomfortable. _How did he find that out? Was it when he touched my mind? It felt like he’d physically used his hands but they were nowhere near me…_

“I know you’ve seen the map,” he repeated. “It’s what I need. At the moment it is all I need.”

When Rey maintained her silence he was tempted to sigh.

“You know I can take whatever I want.”

Despite the gentleness of his words, her muscles grew impossibly tighter, causing them to ache.

“Then you don’t need me to tell you anything.”

“True.”

He rose to his full height in pure negotiation and intimidation mode.

“I would have preferred to avoid this,” he stated matter-of-factly.

“Despite what you may believe it gives me no pleasure to put people in pain. I will go as easily as possible… but I **will** take what I need.”

Rey knew that trying to resist him physically would not only be useless but would also likely lead to unpleasantness of a kind that shocked her to the core. _What is he implying? An assault?_ Attempting to remain calm, she stayed silent and still as one of Ren’s gloved hands rose toward her face. He touched her again as he had in the forest on Takodana, analysing the smallest pieces of information that her mind let through its defences. And then he hesitated. What was that? She had put something there, something unexpected. As Rey’s mental strength weakened, Kylo Ren easily pushed past her awkward attempts to keep him out. While continuing his investigation of her mind, he spoke softly.

“You’ve been so lonely,” he murmured toward her as he searched for what he needed.

“So afraid to leave.”

A thin smile decorated his lips.

“At night, desperate to sleep, you imagine an ocean. I can see it… I can see the island.”

Tears were streaming down Rey’s cheeks from the effort her body put out to resist the pushing in her head. It was pounding hard and her body became desperate to escape, lashing out with no effect. He was holding her down with the Force so he could concentrate on the task at hand.

“Han Solo,” he continued with relentless hope.

“He feels like the father you never had. I can tell you for a fact he would have disappointed you.”

Rey let all of her bottled up rage and fear come out in five words of resistance, the volume of her voice filtered by her lightly clenched teeth.

“ **Get out of my head!** ”

Her fear only made him lean in closer, enhancing the feeling of helplessness. It spurred him onward through the barriers she put up in front of him. It was intoxiacating, this game of cat and mouse.

"You’ve seen the map. It’s in there and I’m going to take it. Don’t be afraid.”

Rey didn’t know how she managed to defy the man before her, but her words were filled with a fire burning deep in her soul. It had grown stronger, more definite.

“I’m not giving you **anything**.”

His lackluster response reflected his level of concern over her threats.

“We’ll see,” he sneered.

 _Any wild animal that felt trapped would try to protect itself_ , Ren thought happily.

The inevitable was going to occur, whether the scavenger liked it or not. However, to his surprise, he began to feel the fear in his own mind as she made her way in. She could see his biggest fear of all and he was not prepared. It was as if someone had walked into his refresher before he had a chance to cover his nakedness: the utmost shame in his mind was not being ready.

“You,” Rey heard herself say clearly, “you’re afraid that you will never be as strong as Darth Vader!”

Ren pulled his hand from her cheek as if she had slashed his hand with a lightsabre, stumbling toward the wall. Rey didn’t remember it being there, but Ren knew that – as he had grown weaker mentally – his body had also begun to feel the strain. He thought to leave but instead jammed the door with a blue button on the control panel.

“How could you barricade me in your mind and force your way into mine? That’s impossible for someone with your lack of skill!” Ren shrieked.

Rey was breathing rather haphazardly as a panic attack swept over her body. When he began shouting at her the tremors only grew in frequency but lost their strength.

“HOW, filthy scavenger?” he sneered with hate in his voice.  
  
When he caught sight of the shakes and her quivering jaw something. pulsed in his heart. It was so strong that he fell against the wall holding a hand over his chest. As if she felt his discomfort Rey sat up and leaned over to her right, seeing him with his head hung low. He could scarcely breathe but he (she had assumed) managed to release her feet. Rey almost fell but instead she crashed into the wall beside him. Realising that he was helpless to resist his condition, Rey stood firmly and stood close. As the black ringlets fell away from his face she could see tears in the corner of his eyes, as if he had been… no, this man surely wouldn’t cry, would he? He was practically a hardened criminal. Rey put a hand to his chest where she found his own right hand, placing her fingers between his. Ren’s eyes flew open and her body froze for a split second as he leant into her hand in a moment of weakness. It was as if she had pulled him forward by his robes.

“Stay away from me…”

His eyes wandered to the slab and then back to Rey.

“How did you get out?”

Rey stared at the man and let her eyes meet his, taking the time to analyse the situation. She let her brow furrow.

“I thought you released me?”

Ren thought to push her away but when he did she pushed him back to the wall.

“You’re having heart palpitations. If they get any worse you might not get the normal rhythm back and die in a couple of hours. The best thing to do is stay where you are.”

Rey swallowed when the hand he held on his own chest fell to his side and clenched into a fist.

“Why are you helping me? Don’t you hate me?” Ren snapped.

_I don’t know why, but, I **want** you to hate me._

“I won’t lie if you won’t,” Rey said emphatically.   
  
Ren couldn’t nod: he was too astonished. As far as she knew he may have even killed her friends and yet she had the kindness in her heart to help him through a childhood illness? It was like going to the Moons of Iego.

“I hate to see people die… no matter how bad they seem to be.”

Fighting his own urge to tear into her mind and get the map, Ren found himself drawn to Rey, finally bringing a hand to her cheek. The contact was as intoxicating as the smell of sand and oil on her tunic. One visit to Tatooine years ago and.... no, that was his old life. He would leave it and his illness behind. He drew in power form the Dark Side, using the heat in his veins to calm the palpitations. Rey felt it too late.

“Forget the map,” he said as his eyes searched her face. “I found something far more interesting.”  
  
Ren almost jumped at Rey, pressing his lips against hers hungrily. He had felt lust as a teenager and managed to take control of it through to adulthood, but this was too strong, too different. Rey pushed against his black-clothed arms and realised all-too-late that he hadn't planned this. It was a sudden want or need. When his kiss left her mouth and trailed down her jaw he spun her so that she was standing with her back against the wall, both of his knees between her thighs. Rey was about ready to scream as his lips sucked at her neck lightly, sending a pleasurable shiver down her spine to conquer her fear. A hand belonging to Rey absent-mindedly ran itself through his hair as he pushed the rough desert clothing past her shoulders, exposing more bare skin. A hand ran up her thigh and Rey wished he would stop, just for a moment. Rey searched for the sudden, almost exact pause in motion. Looking down she realised that Ren was no longer moving his hand. It was stuck in place as if somebody had dumped a huge lump of snow outside Starkiller Base down the back of his neck. Rey grabbed a hold of the lightsabre on his belt and her concentration on him wavered. His arm snapped out like a whip and took hold of her.

“I can’t have you now but I swear I will one day,” Ren whispered in a gravelly voice.

Ren practically lifted Rey back into her restraints and purposely let his hand linger on her cheek. Rey swung her head away and he grinned. The smile never left his face, even as replaced his mask.

“I hope you had fun,” the deep voice teased.

Rey wanted to slap the grin from his face but it was hopeless: he had put her under his imaginary spell. But there was something in him...

“Don’t count on it,” Rey spat.

As Ren left the room a trooper called out to him.

“Sir! The Supreme Leader requests your presence immediately.”  
  
Following orders (and the trooper) Ren left Rey, knowing full well that they would meet again. If he had anything to say about it they'd meet in private.

 

Some time later…

 

Rey went soaring upward until she hit a short, thick limb in the trees above them.

“Rey!”

Finn’s scream echoed the one Ren had boiling up in his throat. In amongst the trees of the forest he saw Finn standing over Rey’s unconscious form. He didn’t want to throw her into the tree but he was so unbelievably angry that he had no other choice. The lightsabre **and** Rey were his. In a fit of rage which he intended to aim at Rey for betraying his heart, Ren forced it onto Finn. Either way, it would still be true to his ears.

“TRAITOR!”

Rey had just drifted completely into an unconscious state, oblivious to the fact that, when she woke, Ren would be pressing the business side of his lightsabre into Finn’s arm for the same reason. By the time she had left Ren bloody and waiting on the opposite side of a large, dipping crevice, Hux had come to rescue his sorry ass. _Admittedly_ , Ren thought to himself with a hidden amusement, _we have quite a bit to discuss for once_.

**Author's Note:**

> A sequel is coming out called "I Take What I Can Get" which came from a fellow Reylo fan! And YES, it will continue this little storyline I've created, reference it (or it can be stand-alone) and make sure I use book quotes to satisy our Reylo-loving community.
> 
> Enjoy!


End file.
